It’s Playtime For The ‘And The Children Shall Lead’ Preview

StarTrek.com have put up a preview for this weekend’s "The Children Shall Lead" Remastered.


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This looks pretty good as far as effects are concerned. The episode itself is awful, but that’s not really the point.

My comment is first for once!

This among more then a handful….a entire season actually was really bad!
When he proclaimed: Death To You All…..the pizza faced dude meant it.
Too bad someone couldn’t write a game around this episode based on either the Quake engine or the earlier Wolfenstein game…. that would ROCK!

I’m looking forward to seeing the remastered “Giant Space Daggers” ™ attack the Enterprise, if nothing else!

yeah, they should leave some episodes out entirely. It’s just that bad…

this episode is very boring show because of children. i not watch it.

I can’t decide which is more laughable… Shatner’s expression in this clip, or the umpteenth person proudly declaring “FIRST!” in the second slot. HA!
This is a GAWDAWFUL episode for so many reasons. It is probably more difficult to sit through than ‘Way to Eden,’ if only because it’s so dull. Nimoy recounts that the director dissed ‘Miri,’ immediately showing how out of touch he was with the show. Better space daggers won’t save it. (Actually, seeing the two red shirt floatin’ in deep space would be cool, but even that wouldn’t make this ep any better.)
So… grin and bear it. These bad ‘uns had to hit sometime.

say what you will about this episode..yes the story is weak but the production team really started hitting their stride in the 3rd season. if you listen to the soundtrack of this episode with headphones (the dvd’s) you will hear all kinds of inticate dubbing of sfx and the music score was an original for this episode and only small elements from it were recycled through the rest of the season.kirk talking backwards is the sh*t and the music sfx when spock’s handshakes to call starfleet is t*ts!

This episode as long as Threshold, Profit and lace, Shade of grey, and a few other I try and pretend didn’t happen.

Two things stand out for me about this episode – first, this has to be the apex of Hammy Shatner Performances, and thus its worth watching for that. The other thing is the unintentional humor of the image of that teenage boy doing that pounding-his-fist-up-and-down-in-the-air motion all through the show. Juvenile? Totally. But it always makes me giggle.

Creepy kids in this episode…and in need of some well deserved and painful Romulan discipline!

This is not one of my favorite episodes, but I guess all TOS episodes can’t be classics. They made a few “stinkers” along the way too.

Mike :o

No amount of remastering could fix this episode.

Ever.

Awww … I kinda like this one. But I’m a bit biased. Ten years ago or so, I had the opportunity to interview each of the child actors about their memories of the episode, and each of them was very fun to meet (If you want to read that one, dig out Issue 115 of Star Trek Communicator).

And hey, it’s not a repeat, so I won’t complain. It looks like we’ll not have a repeat until August, come to think of it.

Kevin (hoping September starts out with a bang — an “Ultimate Computer” bang!)

Kevin — how many of them were in jail at the time of your interview? Had any of them succombed to child actor syndrome? I had a boyhood crush on Pam Ferdin. She was the “It” girl of 70s children’s TV programming…

Maybe in an episode like this they should have the Enterprise do barrel rolls, turn white, then blue, then grey…fly the ship sideways, etc.

LOL-maybe put up on the screen light sabers instead of daggers!

This episode is so gawd awful, they could do all the stuff that makes fans mad and it still wouldn’t make the episode worse.

There is a funny line in this, though: I love the line that Scotty says:
“Now, get outta here……get outta here or we’ll KILL YA!” It always cracks me up!

Hail Hail fire and snow call the angel he will go, far away far to see, friendly angel come to me……

What could they do to this one? Everything is perfect ;)

Did anyone catch the film “Zodiac”? I was very pleased that the movie referenced this episode. (This horrible, horrible episode)

I hope they change the effect of Uhura looking at a mirror just tacked on to the bridge console…. worst practical effect EVER!

Hey, Anthony, isn’t it the “Children Shall Lead”, not the “Chilren Shall Lead”?I think there’s a “d” missing.

Just thought I might point that out.

The worst episode, by far, in the entire history of the franchise. Yes, it’s worse than “Spock’s Brain,” worse than “Threshhold,” worse than “These Are the Voyages.” Because all of those episodes at least made a nod towards having an actual SF or at least space opera premise that was internally consistent to justify the story, however wretched the execution. With “And the Children Shall Lead,” for the first time in Trek history the show took a plunge into Irwin Allen “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” territory, where character motivation, logic and the most basic common sense and rules of drama were thrown out the airlock as an excuse to feature Melvin Belli in a gold lame dress. Shame on Edward Lasko for writing it, the producers for filming it, and the network for foisting it on a loyal viewership that had fought so hard to save the show.

To quote the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, “WORST…EPISODE…EVER!!! Honestly, this episode makes ‘Spock’s Brain’ look like Citizen Kane! They should burn the negative!!

I wonder if the CBS-D team will cowboy up and put reflections of the Enterprise on the daggers.

This ep is pretty weak for sure… Pizza The Hut won’t look much better despite the remastering…

Can’t wait for Ultimate Computer and Tomorrow is Yesterday.

No remastering job can salvage this abomination; this one would have best been left forgotten as it’s truly a low point in TOS lore. The DVD recorder will be getting a rest this week.

I agree–this gets my vote for worst episode ever. There’s at least something FUN about the other baddies, but this one is just grim, depressing crap, with only a few hamtastic Shatner moments to occasionally wake up the viewer. However there’s PLENTY for CBS Digital to work with as even the library space shots in the original all seemed to feature some glaring blue spill artifact or other technical problem, almost as if the editors were signalling their own distaste for the episode when they threw those shots in…

Waiting for Tomorrow is Yesterday, with the enhanced special effects set high over Nebraska with the big E and Capt. Christopher’s kickin’ F-104..if The Immunity Syndrome is any indication, we’re in for a thrill ride.
Until then, somebody pass me the pepto-bismo for “Children Shall Lead”…which I haven’t watched in over 10 years for good reason!

I feel dizzy just thinking about this episode as canon – –
“If you’re Evil, you must in turn be (in our human sensibilities) Ugly”. This episode flies in the face of many things which Star Trek had established it stood for.

Well, at least “All Our Yesterdays” is on the week after.

I wish they wouldn’t have spent any time or money on this one. The limited resources would be much better spent on episodes like Errand of Mercy or The Enterpirse Incident.

I disliked the idea of kids on Star Trek because of this episode. Never could stand whiny kids on Trek at all. Too bad they will not be improving on the writing of this episode.

Maybe in an episode like this they should have the Enterprise do barrel rolls, turn white, then blue, then grey…fly the ship sideways, etc.

LOL-maybe put up on the screen light sabers instead of daggers!

This episode is so gawd awful, they could do all the stuff that makes fans mad and it still wouldn’t make the episode worse.

There is a funny line in this, though: I love the line that Scotty says:
“Now, get outta here……get outta here or we’ll KILL YA!” It always cracks me up!”

You and me both, pal….you and me both…

Your post cracked me up big time….because it’s so TRUE!!! LOL

This episode makes Spock’s Brain look like Citizen Kane.

TTM

“I hope they change the effect of Uhura looking at a mirror just tacked on to the bridge console…. worst practical effect EVER!”

I agree. They should comp in the CGI Gorn from Enterprise and digitally apply a gray hair wig to it….that would be better!

LOL!!

My favorite line is Kirk’s “Yes…my Vulcan friend…”

Why did nobody think that casting a celebrity lawyer to be a guest star on a TV show was a bad idea?

I forgot to mention i disliked Miri too for the same reasons… But as i said with my observations about this episode this was the clincher….
I’m not a parent person you can tell right? lol

It’s not worse than TNG’s “Code of Honor” so it has that going for it.

I agree for the most part however I am not sure if this is worse than Spocks Brain. All the people saying they should not have done this one confuse me. How can you want to have a remastered show and leave something out? I am not understanding this train of thought…

Well, let’s see….there were 79 episodes and when you really get down to it….30 were BRILLIANT, 30 were GOOD and 19 were GAWDAWFUL!!! There, I’ve said it! Let the debate as to which is which begin!!

Here, I’ll start you off with an obvious one; City On The Edge Of Forever was one of the brilliant ones……next?

These are very sensitive instruments, I will not have you upset their delicate balance. We would all be lost, forever lost!

Go away, now…

Go away or we’ll kill Ya!

“The Menagerie” is still the best two hours of Star Trek ever filmed, IMHO. There are other great episodes, of course (not to mention a great many that are less-than-stellar, but still great fun to watch), but few come close to its ambition or scope. Really, everything you’d want to know about the appeal the series has had over the ensuing decades, including its soaring optimism, is right there, where it all got started.

The effective distance between “And the Children Shall Lead” and “The Menagerie” is a googleplex of light-years.

#41- Totally agree on Menagerie.
I would rather watch ANY episode of Lost in Space over “Children.”
OR, any episode of the Ultraman DVD set I just bought.
(Yes, I’m that old….. and very discriminating:)

I’d still like one of Spockboy’s comparison vids for The Immunity Syndrome.
___

And about the comments regarding why CBS-D is remastering this one, they’re all going to be remastered. If they did all the good episodes now, what would there be worth watching in the next batch of remasters?

They could have destroyed all copies of this episode and I would have chalked it up to a childhood hallucination due to illness!!! It is so horrid. No sfx magic will pollish the turd up. ;-)

Tom-Thanks for putting up the exact quote. I haven’t watched this dog in 15+ years, sorry if I flubbed some stuff.

#44 “polish the turd up”
I love it! Turd….what a funny word! Whooddathunkit?! Describes the episode perfectly!

I’d rather watch this than anything is DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise.

“It’s not worse than TNG’s “Code of Honor” so it has that going for it.”

Oh yes it is!!!!

LMAO!!!

“I’d rather watch this than anything is DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise.”

You mean to tell me you think ATCSL is better than any of the Dominion War episodes?

Puh-leeze!!! LMAO!!!

Mark 2000-I’m a HUGE TOS fan, but I think you are going a bit overboard, aren’t ya? I despise Voyager, but I cna handle lots of it’s episodes compared to this one. Without Scotty’s lines (…forever lost…or we’ll kill ya….) this one is a total and complete waste.